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England will rely on the same dozen players who were on duty for the second Test defeat at Trent Bridge to level the npower series against India.

As expected, the selectors named an unchanged squad for the Brit Oval finale as Michael Vaughan’s men attempt to preserve a six-year unbeaten Test record on home soil.

“While India fully deserved their victory at Trent Bridge, there were many positive aspects to our performance,” said chairman of selectors David Graveney. “We were particularly pleased with the way our inexperienced bowling attack performed and they will be hoping to build on that in the final Test.”

Giant paceman Chris Tremlett, whose match figures of 47.1-15-92-6 at Nottingham were the pick of the English bunch, will be the main threat to the Indians on a springy Oval surface.

Fellow tall fast bowlers Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff have been successful in extracting steepling bounce at the ground but both are only in the early stages of comebacks from injury.

“Andrew Flintoff, Stephen Harmison and Matthew Hoggard are all making good progress in their recoveries but the selectors felt it was too soon to consider them for Test cricket,” added Graveney.